Dr. Hou's notes
Editor's Note
The content described in this article is based on official and reliable sources, which are repeated at the end of this article.
Preface
Recently, with the popularity of romance dramas, many costume films have become popular, no matter which dynasty or generation of the story, although the protagonist has changed again and again, some of the small roles have always existed.
A costume drama can have no faceless emperors, but it is absolutely inseparable from faceless eunuchs!
There are even some eunuchs who act quite manly, such as Gonggong Su in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", which is much stronger than the emperor.
And in some court dramas that are more out of line, there are many cases of fake eunuchs.
So then again, can eunuchs really be fake?
How did eunuchs come about?
Eunuchs are commonly known as eunuchs, and in ancient times, including modern times, they should be very unpopular existences, so then again, how did eunuchs come about? This goes back to ancient times.
At least according to the current historical research, there were eunuchs in China as early as the Shang Dynasty.
With the advent of the family world, the rulers will always be transformed, and the beauties of the world will be provided for their own pleasure.
But the problem is that these concubines also need to be served, and in order to prevent themselves from being cuckolded, the rulers chose to castrate the men who served people in the palace.
At first, these eunuchs were all slaves who were captured after the defeat and their status was not high, but later, with the increasing strengthening of the absolute monarchy, the eunuchs who were the slaves of the Son of Heaven gradually became arrogant, and there were even many cattle who could kill the emperor in turn, such as Zhao Gao.
Of course, some people speculate that Zhao Gao may not have been castrated, because the history books say that he had daughters, how can he say that? Who stipulated that eunuchs could not have sons and daughters?
You are like Wei Zhongxian who also has a daughter, but he was castrated after he had a daughter.
Besides, eunuchs, even if they don't have biological children, they can recognize their gods, or find someone else's family to pass on to them.
For example, Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, was originally supposed to be the descendant of the Xiahou family, but was passed on to the great eunuch Cao Jie as his son.
For example, in the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, when the eunuchs were relatively powerful, those powerful eunuchs would recognize Gan'er as their political alliance, and there were also many cases of eunuchs and palace maids marrying.
Although the eunuch is not a normal man, he is half a man.
Besides, although the status of eunuchs was indeed very low at the beginning, the eunuchs in the later years were not less competitive!
Even in individual dynasties, the power of eunuchs can cover the sky with one hand.
For example, in the Tang Dynasty, if you open the history books of the middle and late Tang Dynasty, you will be surprised to find that what the emperor said in front of the eunuchs? There is authority, but not much.
And the relatively better power of the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty was also able to compete with hundreds of officials for a time.
Don't wonder why eunuchs have so much power, because you have to see other eunuchs, but they have lost the most important thing, the symbol and dignity of men.
In ancient times, people would not accept eunuchs as emperors, so even if eunuchs had a lot of troubles for the country, they really couldn't find a better ally than eunuchs for the emperor.
Especially these eunuchs, it is very likely that they are good friends who have grown up with the emperor since childhood, and the relationship is really not comparable to those courtiers outside.
In addition, I would like to correct you a little bit, although the vast majority of eunuchs in history are not like martial arts novels with peerless martial arts, but there are indeed many eunuchs in history who can fight.
For example, the eunuch Yang Cunqiao of the Tang Dynasty, who was a ruthless man who beheaded hundreds of thousands of people in the southern and northern wars!
Even in the Song Dynasty, although the eunuchs are far from being compared with the Tang and Ming dynasties, if you carefully read the history of the Song Dynasty, you will be surprised to find that the eunuchs of the Song Dynasty should actually be much more bloody than the literati.
Li Xian, Qin Han and a large number of military generals who laughed at the battlefield were eunuchs, and the widows of the Yang family were fake, but the eunuchs and generals of the Song Dynasty were real.
Of course, the most famous dynasty of eunuchs is still in the Ming Dynasty, and the reason why the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty are famous is because the eunuch system of the Ming Dynasty is too complete!
The twenty eunuchs of the inner court, whose functions are almost a copy of the six departments of the imperial court, it is not an exaggeration to say that when necessary, the emperor can temporarily maintain the operation of the central government by relying on the eunuchs.
The eunuch with the palm print of the celebrant was also an existence above 10,000 people under one person at that time, and he was even known as the internal minister who could be compared with the prime minister and assistant of the cabinet.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the power is tilted towards the government and the opposition, so is there a normal man mixed in with such a powerful eunuch team?
Are there any fake eunuchs?
First of all, I can tell you responsibly that there have been stories of normal men pretending to be eunuchs and entering the palace.
The reason is simple, at first the harem was for male kings, but according to historical statistics, the vast majority of emperors did not live long.
As a result, when the old emperor dies and the new emperor has not yet taken power, there is often a situation where the queen mother is in power.
And many of these queen mothers are 30 like wolves and 40 like tigers, and they used to be controlled by kings and didn't dare to mess around, but now they are widowed and in power, so they naturally can't wronged themselves.
For example, the mother Empress Dowager Zhao, who humiliated Qin Shi Huang's life, raised a male pet during the widowhood.
To be honest, raising a male pet is really not a thing, and the famous Empress Dowager Xuan's eighth son has also raised a male pet.
But Empress Dowager Zhao's mistake was that she not only gave birth to a son with a male pet, but also wanted to help the male pet rebel, which was a complete tear with Qin Shi Huang.
And an important reason why Lü Buwei will be forced to death by Qin Shihuang in the end is that Chang Yu was sent in by Lü Buwei, and the way to get in is very simple, that is, let him pretend to be a eunuch.
This rebellion left a deep shadow on Qin Shi Huang and also served as a wake-up call for later emperors.
In order to ensure that similar things do not happen again, so in the Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty, the emperor has already begun to stipulate that it is best to choose those who are young, five or six years old, and orphans who are okay.
Castrated as eunuchs early, so as not to have another accident, the palace will also regularly send people to check the bodies of these eunuchs, so as not to be uncut.
But the problem is that no matter how good the system is, if no one implements it, it doesn't seem to be of much use, and when the emperor is not in power, there must be no problem, but the question is what if the emperor is in power?
It is true that when it comes to ancient times, we will always say that the feudal monarchy is autocratic, but if you really play history, you will find that there are not many monarchs who can make arbitrary decisions, and there are really many times when the emperor's power falls.
Don't say anything else, let's just say that during Wu Zetian's reign, the only female emperor had a good time, and the male pets around her were one after another.
In addition to those who pretend to be eunuchs, there are also many people who pretend to be monks, and I have to say that this female emperor is really good at playing.
But this is not the most terrifying, the most terrifying is the death of Tang Jingzong.
In the late Tang Dynasty, the power of eunuchs was very large, and one of them was a eunuch named Liu Guang, who used his power to send his adopted son Liu Keming, who was not castrated, to the palace.
In the palace, Liu Keming loved the emperor's favorite concubine a lot, and later because he was worried about being discovered by Tang Jingzong, he simply killed Tang Jingzong first.
This story tells us that if you have a big enough relationship, then even in the palace can dredge the relationship.
Of course, there must be very few people who can enter the palace without castration like Liu Keming, but it can indeed be done by bribing those responsible masters to give them some benefits so that they don't cut them clean.
In other words, theoretically, a man can be a eunuch.
But those who can successfully do this are a very small number after all, and the vast majority of eunuchs are very miserable in this life, so let's take a look at how difficult it is to be a eunuch, and how difficult it is, right?
The hard life of a eunuch
The first step to becoming a eunuch is to pass the ghost gate, because you have to understand what you have to do to be a eunuch, and you have to cut off the organs of your lower body first.
This is the time when it is easy to have an accident and a major surgery that can hurt your life!
In ancient times, it was possible that just a wound could cause purulent tetanus and kill you, and the danger of such castration can be imagined.
And even if you have the courage to face all this, you still have to have money to do it, yes, in the impression of most people, generally only people who can't survive will choose to be a eunuch, but if you want to be a eunuch, you also have to give money.
There is no way, who let there are too many people who can't survive in ancient times, so that many times eunuchs have become a profession in short supply.
And as a result, a black industrial chain was created, and if you wanted to be a eunuch for surgery in the Ming Dynasty, you needed about five taels of silver!
For those who are so poor that they want to be eunuchs, this money is basically impossible to come up with, so what should they do if they can't take it out? The answer is usury.
But then again, once you become a eunuch in the palace, you may never leave the palace again in your life, and who would dare to lend you money? Of course, it will be the eunuch in the palace.
Before you became a eunuch and entered the palace, you were already in debt, but do you think this is the end of it?
According to the rules of the time, the organs that you had emasculated from a certain master were to be kept as collateral by someone else.
Because in ancient times, people believed that if a certain part of the body was missing when they died, then it was very likely that they would become a lonely ghost, so these eunuchs would always find a way to get their organs back before they died, so that they could be buried with a whole corpse.
And if you want to get it back, it's easy, take the money!
And even if you successfully complete the above process, after entering the palace, life is actually very difficult, because the eunuchs who can mix up are only a minority after all, and most of the eunuchs are actually more humble than the palace maids.
Because the palace maids have reached the age, they can still go out of the palace to live a normal life, and if they are lucky, they can also be appreciated by the emperor or any concubine, and the chicken dog ascends to heaven.
If the eunuch can't ascend to heaven, he can only fall into hell.
(Disclaimer) The process and pictures described in the article are from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance. If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible!
Article sources: "Historical Records", "Palace Maid Talks about the Past", Eunuch Han Dian, "Qing Dynasty Guangxu Huidian"